Buy.com Brags About SN+E-commerce Patents

RBAE writes "In an article in InternetRetailer.com, buy.com CEO Scott Blum brags about how they will protect and enforce their (pending) patents that link social networking and e-commerce, so that anyone trying to integrate these two fields will have first to pay them a handsome fee, or else. Mind that buy.com hasn't even started to offer such service, while other sites like Overstock and eGrupos have already launched services integrating ecommerce (online auctions) and social networking. A quote from buy.com's CEO: "We'll stand out with our patents on e-commerce and social networking, and we're big enough to protect them". Finally an interesting way to apply social networking, and Buy.com wants it all for themselves."

Comments

well i have an answer for them...

[Naikrovek]

... if you can't play nice with others, then i'm not going to play with you.

period.

good bye, buy.com. i never used you and i never will.

Re:well i have an answer for them...

[DaHat]

then i'm not going to play with you

You make it all sound so dirty... oh wait, it is!

Re:well i have an answer for them...

[Craig Maloney]

I told them to cancel my account because of this. Here is the text of my letter to them:

I'd like to cancel my account with buy.com, as I will no longer be ordering from a company that sabre-rattles over using patents. (article reference to slashdot) I am very much against software patents, and find dealing with companies that use patents as a competitive tool to be distateful to deal with.

I await your instructions on how to remove my account from your records.

Thank you.

Got a note today they they've removed my account. Wonder if it'll make any difference.

Im not in the mood...

[redog]

buh-buy.com

Corny schemes

[Profane MuthaFucka]

Anyone noticed the recent uptick in screwball get-rich Internet companies?

There's Google.com. Not screwball, but definitely get-rich Internet. Their stock is still crazy expensive.

Shopping.com is another one of these IPO's that made big gains in value overnight. And their idea isn't even new - they just allow you to compare prices from many vendor.

And now this one. They add the patents, but otherwise they are just a get-rich Internet company.

I think this is Bubble #2.

social networking patents VS social networking

[evilmousse]

[quote]Don't underestimate the power of social networking," Blum says. "It will be a huge force to reckon with."[/quote]

So huge, your impending patents will be as a cork on the ocean--by far the influenced, rather than the influencor. You can't kid a kidder, and you can't socially engineer the social engineers (ehrm.. much). Business success may yet be yours however--comsumer whores may yet love your site, and lucky for you they abound.

* me throws a little karma on the bonfire

-g

Cat and Girl on Moral Consumption as a Luxury

Buy.com Sucks

[Jeff321]

Lately their service has gone down the drain. Reviews. I speak from firsthand knowledge too. Ordered and they said it wasn't in stock so I cancelled and they sent it anyway, charging me more than the original price because when I cancelled my discount disappeared.

software patents suck

[dtfinch]

Blah blah blah preaching to the converted for attention blah blah.

I couldn't find the patents?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does anyone have a link?

Anyone ever hear of referrer discounts?

[zymurgy_cat]

I wonder how they can patent this when referrer discounts (electronically implemented) would seem like prior art. I can hand out a code from Crutchfield.com. When someone buys a product of enough value, I get a coupon. As for these group discounts, people have already built sites/services where people get together to get a group discount. Then there's the "free X" (iPod, phone, whatever) deal. Put that in your blog, and you've got e-commerce and social networking.

I fail to see how such a thing is novel, new, or full of such inventiveness as to warrant a patent. Then again, that describes a lot of patents.

Re:Anyone ever hear of referrer discounts?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because as soon as you put it on the 'net, the idiots at the USPTO consider it an "invention."

Re:Anyone ever hear of referrer discounts?

[rbaf]

They haven't put it on the net yet, that's the funny part. They acquired a "ratings/referral" company (I wouldn't really call that "social networking") and now are planning to integrate it.

Obligatory Prior Art:

[Slime-dogg]

How about E-Bay? An auction requires a social network in order to really be effective, and if it's not E-commerce, I live on Mars. People have their own user accounts on E-Bay, can rate other people, contact info is there, etc. I'd say that is all that's required for a social network, no?

Re:Obligatory Prior Art:

[Anonymous Coward]

eBay has grown to be one of the largest (if not the largest) communities on the net, and some of the things we understand as "social networking" have certainly played a role. However, if you look at what Overstock or better yet eGrupos have done, they go further in expanding the concept. In eBay you cannot have a list of your contacts, find how you're connected to someone else, or form social circles along with the ability to buy or sell things online. In fact, don't be surprised if eBay starts to do some of these things.

After all, the rating system of eBay is the simplest of things, and personaly I grew bored of watching things like "A++++++++++++ great ebayer". That helps you decide if a person can be trusted or not, but I wouldn't go as far as defining that as "social networking".

Buy.com is taking advantage of the fuzz created along the term "social networking", and that's ok with me, but trying to monopolize on the concept is not a good thing. And by reading the article you can clearly see that they're more excited about having filed for those patents, than about the service itself. Now that's a big no-no for smart consumers.

Dot-corny schemes pay workers like you and me

[tepples]

Cool! Perhaps with a second bubble and the recognition of cultural problems with offshore outsourcing, recent BSCS grads like myself will finally find a job.